The Blog of the Rhode Island Republican Assembly
Liz Cheney was on the speaking program this morning, and in a “surprise” move brought out her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, to make some closing remarks. The former VP got a rousing reception and a two-minute standing ovation.
“…A welcome like that is almost enough to make me want to run for office again,” said Dick Cheney. “But I’m not gonna do it.”
The former vice president made several references “to passing the torch to a younger generation.” Very Kennedyesque…
Attorney Jay Sekulow was scheduled to introduce former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at CPAC this morning. However, in a typical CPAC surprise move, Sekulow instead introduced Massachusetts’ brand new Republican Senator Scott Brown instead, who then introduced Gov. Mitt Romney. He was warmly received. It wasn’t the only surprise of the morning…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ynQscnD5X4[/youtube]
Florida Senate candidate and conservative grass-roots darling Marco Rubio spurred on the tea party movement Thursday in his highest-profile speaking engagement yet.
Rubio, using the keynote speech kicking off the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, heralded the “greatest political pushback in American political history.”…
“Americans want leaders who will come to Washington, D.C., and stand up to the big government agenda, not be corrupted by it. After all, the United States Senate already has one Arlen Specter,” he added…
Read More: Politico
There are a number of Rhode Islanders who will be attending the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference, but for those who cannot…
While nothing is the same as attending the annual convention of the biggest conservative audience in person, Townhall.com and its partners will bring you the next best thing.
At http://www.townhall.com/CPAC, you’ll be able to follow along with every major speech, every breaking news item, every quick-hit reaction that comes out of the famous gathering of conservative activists.
At Townhall.com’s CPAC page, you can watch live streaming video of CPAC speeches, panels and conferences while getting live feedback from the biggest names in conservative media.
You’ll be able to chat with other users, sharing your thoughts about the proceedings and offering your take on the content of the speeches. Townhall.com’s CPAC page also features Twitter interactivity, featuring thoughts from the biggest speakers, conference organizers and conservative commentators, as well as live updates from Twitter-enabled conference attendees.
Just in case you missed the chance to attend this year’s CPAC, remember that you can follow along online. There will never be a replacement for attending the conference in person, but if you’re stuck in an office somewhere, know that Townhall.com’s CPAC page will be right there providing you with such in-depth online experience of CPAC that you’ll know you’re as close to being at the conference as you could get!
Source: Townhall.com
With polls and recent elections suggesting a possible comeback for Republicans, a group of prominent conservatives unveiled a statement of principles Wednesday called Constitutional Conservatism that they hope will guide a new era of governing.
“A year ago, some pundits claimed that conservatism was effectively dead. But today, as revelations about Washington’s futility in addressing America’s problems continue to mount, the movement is alive and poised for a resurgence of Constitutional Conservative leadership,” former Attorney General Edwin Meese said.
Meese, who served under President Ronald Reagan , was one of several dozen conservatives who drafted and signed the statement, dubbed the Mount Vernon Statement because they introduced it at a museum that once was part of George Washington’s Virginia estate of the same name.
Others noted that they were following in the footsteps of the late conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr. and others who signed a similar statement in 1960.
“Fifty years ago, the federal government threatened to grow exponentially,” said Edwin Feulner Jr. , the president of the Heritage Foundation , a conservative research center. “Visionaries then gathered in Sharon, Connecticut , to articulate essential principles of American governance. Today, that threat is even greater, and so we must articulate anew the nature of Constitutional Conservatism in the 21st century.”
The statement reaffirms their goal of a limited government coupled with a strong national defense…
Read More: Newsmax.com
“THE OPPOSITE OF RIGHT PART IX”
On February 14, 2010, the Providence Journal reprinted a letter by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a federation of government employees dated April 16, 1937 in which President Roosevelt declared: “All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management.” While Rhode Island Democrats try to figure out whether they should agree with the patron saint of their party, President Franklin Roosevelt, or with their modern day masters, the public employee union bosses, the RIGOP has searched the archives and has found an interesting letter about state employees unions that may be of interest to at least one current gubernatorial candidate.
On April 28, 1966, then Governor John Chafee sent a letter to the Rhode Island Senate explaining why he vetoed a bill that gave Rhode Island state employees the right to collectively bargain as a union. Governor John Chafee saw the “organizational problems inherent where the machinery designed for private industry is imposed on State employees”. He explained that “since wages, hours and practically all working conditions are now established by laws enacted by the General Assembly … or regulations”, collective bargaining for state employees will “inevitably” lead to “bad relationships between …employees and the State” resulting in “the public [being] the loser.”
Unfortunately, the would-be Governor Lincoln Chafee won’t follow the sage advice of the former Governor John Chafee when it comes to state public employee unions. Candidate Lincoln Chafee wants “the endorsement of organized public sector unions” (Warwick Beacon 1/5/10) and has “urged” the House Finance Committee “to leave benefits alone” for public sector union employees (ProJo 1/13/10). Said Republican Party Chair Giovanni Cicione: “Despite a recent WPRI 12 Poll that shows voters think labor has too much power by a margin of 57% to 31%, Linc Chafee ignores this enduring warning from his father and embraces the same public employee unions that his father fought against.” “I wonder who Linc will defer to on this question,” asked Cicione – “his respected late father or his more recent benefactors – the fat cat public employee union bosses.”
News Release: Rhode Island Republican Party
Centrist Democrat Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) announced earlier today his decision to not seek re-election for a third term this Fall. Who’s next?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg9no4El2R4[/youtube]
First off, a hearty Congratulations to ALL of you who put pressure on Congressman Patrick Kennedy during this past year to heed the will of the people. You wrote, you called, you protested, you spent your own time and money to make your voices heard. And it paid off! Without a doubt, your messages finally got through. We wish Representative Kennedy well in his future endeavors. Now let’s get down to the business of making sure all of our elected leaders provide sound representation for the people of Rhode Island.
To achieve that goal, we are excited to announce that we have formed The People’s PAC of the RI Tea Party. The People’s PAC will allow regular folks to help fund campaigns and endorse candidates who represent US; not corporations, not unions, not lawyers, or any other special interest group. Just We the People. We are currently seeking a web designer who will help us set up a webpage for our PAC. If you are skilled in this area, please contact colleen [at] riteaparty [dot] com asap. We will soon send out a survey asking for your input on how we should vet prospective candidates. This is YOUR PAC, so we want to build our process around the principles which mean the most to you.
We’d also like to extend a warm welcome to our two new Board members, Lisa Blais, and Patti Girardi. Lisa has over 20 years of corporate human resource management, employee and labor relations specialist, collective bargaining expertise (negotiated private-sector labor contracts) corporate benefit negotiations, public education law and local practices expert, school and municipal contract analyst. She will be invaluable in our efforts to combat the influence of public sector unions in the Rhode island legislature. Patti earned an MBA from Harvard University and specializes in branding and marketing management. Her experience and knowledge will be vital to growing our organization and messaging to the electorate to effect much needed change.
Congratulations to several tea party members who have recently had letters to the editor published in Projo, including Angela Hoff, Alice Losasso, and Patti Girardi. Your efforts to consistently keep our voice in the media is absolutely critical to our mission and is greatly appreciated by all. If anyone has their writings published, be sure to let us know!
Finally, please note our next RI Tea Party Meeting will take place on March 10, 2010 at the Quonset O Club in North Kingstown. We will have a guest speaker (TBA) and focus on workshops for local tea party groups and other committees so that more people can become involved in the effort. Please bring your ideas!
RI Tea Party Open Meeting
March 10, 2010
6:00PM (reception)
6:30PM-8:30PM
Quonset O Club
200 Lt. James Brown Blvd.
North Kingstown, RI 02852
News Release: Rhode Island Tea Party
This updated list is cobbled together from a variety of sources.
We’ll update this list as the rumor mill churns…
Republicans? (7)
John Loughlin, State Representative (who is currently a candidate for Congress)
Joseph Almond, Lincoln Town Administrator, nephew of Lincoln Almond
Jon Scott, former Congressional candidate
John Holmes, former RIGOP Chairman
Gio Cicione, current RIGOP Chairman
Buddy Cianci, talk show host, former mayor (would have to reaffiliate with GOP)
Steve Laffey, former Mayor of Cranston and US Senate candidate
Independents? (3)
Buddy Cianci, talk show host, former mayor (if he stayed unaffliated)
Linc Chafee, former Senator
Arlene Violet, former Attorney General
Democrats? (17)
Bill Lynch, Democratic Chair
Patrick Lynch, Attorney General (how much does he hate his brother?)
David Cicilline, Mayor of Providence
Elizabeth Dennigan, former State Rep. (could switch from running in 2nd district)
Frank Caprio, General Treasurer (oh, what the heck)
Liz Roberts, Lt. Governor (go for it, please!)
Myrth York (God would never be so good to us!)
Jon Brien, State Representative, DINO who could make it interesting
Dan McKee, Mayor of Cumberland
Seth Yurdin, Providence City Councilman
Bill Murphy, former Speaker of the House
Ed Pacheco, State Representative
David Segal, State Representative
Nicholas Pell, Grandson of Sen. Claiborne Pell
Ralph Mollis, Secretary of State
Guilliaume de Ramel, former candidate for Secretary of State
Robert Weygand, former Lt. Governor
Primaries for Everyone
http://newsblog.projo.com/2010/02/former-republican-rep-moffitt.html
Two way race for RIGOP Gov candidate. At least for now…